ETC joins the World Travel and Tourism Council

The European Travel Commission represented by its President Mr Peter De Wilde has become a member of the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Executive Committee.

The WTTC membership will facilitate a direct dialogue between ETC members and the private sector to further strengthen the value of tourism in Europe and will provide a platform to advocate for the interests of Destination Europe on the global arena.

The official move to join WTTC comes after many years of extensive cooperation between the organisations to raise awareness of economic impacts and social benefits of the tourism sector in Europe. In 2015, WTTC and ETC in collaboration with the UNWTO published a joint statement in favour of the recast of the EU visa rules to ensure that Europe remains the world’s No 1 tourist destination. More recently, the European Tourism Manifesto for Growth and Jobs (currently chaired by ETC) and WTTC co-signed the Tourism Legacy Paper appealing to the new European Parliament and European Commission to move towards an integrated European tourism policy with strategic funding at EU level.